A prominent Imam has been stabbed during a prayer service at Paterson.
An imam has been hospitalized following a stabbing at a mosque in New Jersey.
It occurred during early morning prayer on Sunday, as Muslims observed the holy month of Ramadan.
According to CBS2, the 65-year-old imam is in stable condition, but he has a partially collapsed lung among his injuries.
As people returned to pray, there was a heavy police presence outside the Omar Mosque in Paterson, including the sheriff’s office.
Serif Zorba, 32, of Paterson, was arrested, according to the Passaic County prosecutor.
Surveillance video shows just after 5:30 a.m. as everyone kneels down, a man in a white hoodie walks over some people toward Imam Sayed Elnakib and stabs him. The suspect runs off and multiple community members sprint after him and hold him down until police arrive.
“The imam say, ‘Oh, he kill me. He kill me. Everybody follow this guy,'” witness Fadi Abulwad said. “He was bleeding a lot because he stabbed him in his neck.”
Abdul Hamdan, a spokesperson for the mosque, said there were around 200 people inside and the imam was stabbed at least two times and added Zorba is someone that some people in the community say looks familiar but none of the mosque leadership recognizes him.
“We expect that once the investigation is concluded that this will be an isolated incident. However, we have heightened our security in the mosque, along with Paterson police and Passaic County Sheriff’s Department,” Hamdan said.
“Good thing they catch him and he’ll get punishment and everything will be okay,” said Mustafa Halak of Omar Mosque.
Paterson Mayor Andre Sayegh and Councilman Alaa Abdelaziz, who represents the area, visited the imam in the hospital.
“I feel like we could have lost this imam. He’s just praying in peace as are the 199 others that were there,” Sayegh said. “Paterson has the largest Muslim population in the state of New Jersey so I just want to let people know we shouldn’t have to be afraid to pray.”
“It’s scary seeing a guy … he’s a community leader. He’s there for everyone in this community and seeing him and his kids that I’ve seen grow up — they’re about my age — it was just scary seeing that,” Abdelaziz said.
The Council on American Islamic Relations says it needs more information in order to determine whether this was an act of hate, but just this past Friday it called on authorities to investigate vandalism at a school about a mile away.
“The name of the school is Dr. Hani Awadallah School,” said Dina Sayedahmed, communications manager for CAIR-NJ, “and the only part of his name that was scribbled out is ‘Allah.’ Generally speaking, based on our record-keeping, anti-Muslim bigotry and anti-Muslim incidents generally do go up during Ramadan.”
Omar Mosque welcomed CBS2 inside as people returned for prayer throughout the afternoon and evening with increased security. According to a mosque spokesperson, the imam is expected to recover completely.
The suspect, Zorba, is charged with attempted murder and unlawful possession of a weapon. He is scheduled to appear in court on Monday.
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